The Joy Luck Club is full of mother and daughter relationships. Every chapter in this book looks at the complex relationships between women. One of the themes that permeates the book is the mother’s struggle with their daughter’s to not lose their Chinese-ness, to not to forget who they are or where they came from.

The Mothers tell stories about their childhood memories in China, frequently about their mother’s and families.

The mothers are:

Suyuan WooAn-mei HsuLindo JongYing-ying St. Clair

The Daughters tell stories of how difficult it was to bridge their Mother’s Eastern (Chinese) upbringing and the assimilation of Western philosophies as first generation immigrants to the United States.